Lindsay Lohan in denial over rehab return, source says

She started as a promising child star, but nobody could have predicted how things would go from there.

LOS ANGELES – Lindsay Lohan is either making the most of her free time by partying on ahead of her court-ordered 90-day rehab stint, or, according to one insider, she's just refusing to believe it is even happening.

Lohan was spotted hitting up Hollywood hot spot AV Club on Monday night, just a handful of hours after her dramatic court appearance and sentencing.

"Up until last week there was no way she was taking a plea deal, there was no way she was going to go back to rehab," a Lohan confidante told FOX411's Pop Tarts column. "It's amazing that she came around."

Apparently the 26-year-old is in "full denial" that she will even have to stay in a rehabilitation facility for the full three months.

"She doesn't care," noted the source. "It isn't that she is stupid. She just doesn't get it."

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According to one legal expert, the plea deal -- which seems tame considering she was facing six months behind bars for a misdemeanor of lying to police -- could prove to be particularly problematic for the party-loving star if she makes just one tiny step wrong.

"If she goes to a Hollywood rehab, she will be in the care of her doctor, and too often it's a case of anything goes. Lohan was not ordered to a locked facility, as that can only mean a psych hospital. She is ordered to stay in rehab, but the term locked is being misused," explained alternative sentencing expert Wendy Feldman, adding that the additional two extra years of probation with drug testing and the community labor, as opposed to community service, could be Lohan's derailing.

"This deal was a basic deal with no look towards the future. She needs to be empowered, not shoveling dirt with community labor," Feldman continued. "And she is now ripe for a new probation violation and that would be a felony with mandatory jail time."

X17 Online also reported on Tuesday that Lohan was attempting to get court approval to fulfill her sentence in her original home state of New York.

"It is possible the Judge will approve it," Feldman added. "They're so tired of her antics in California."

A rep for Lohan did not respond to a request for comment.

Hollie McKay has been a FoxNews.com staff reporter since 2007. She has reported extensively from the Middle East on the rise and fall of terrorist groups such as ISIS in Iraq. Follow her on twitter at @holliesmckay